Thanksgiving in Nicaragua

[By Hannah Johnson] Hello from Nicaragua, I hope all is well with everyone and enjoying the cold holiday season that’s right around the corner. I know we’ve been learning to adjust to the hot holiday season while I and my amazing team are down here. I thought I would like to share a little a bit about some experiences God has brought me through.

Last week we did our first candy party, I didn’t really know what to expect going into the candy parties; I had worked with kids before lots of times and my heart was always so taken by them, but the kids in Nicaragua have taken my heart the most. These kids find joy in the littlest of things and don’t mess around when it comes to swinging a stick at a pinata. Seeing the smiles on 50 precious children was so heartwarming and reminding that I can find joy in Christ alone without all the riches of life.

On Monday, we went and handed out the food bags that we had put together earlier the week before. While making the bags and praying over every bag as we measured the rice, and beans out I knew God was going to bless the families that got them, but I wasn’t prepared for what God was going to do through my heart with it. Seeing how these people’s day-to-day life is compared to mine was very humbling and breaking. The people’s lives here are so rich if not from the outside but inside of their hearts. they found so much more joy in a bag of food and prayer than I have in a simple meal. And multiple families had sick kids, and yet they were running around with smiles bigger than mine had been. They find joy through their poverty. I was asked if I would rather see these families have everything I had and have the feeling of greed and loneliness like I do from all that or have them stay with what they have with next to nothing knowing they’re able to smile and find happiness in it though knowing most of them are starving. And I honestly don’t know what I would pick I think my eyes have been opened to see that one is not greater than the other but that they are both equally sad. But one thing I do know is the families in Nicaragua are so much richer than America in its own way.